A Bittersweet Life (2005)

Dalkomhan Insaeng or A Bittersweet Life (2005) is just another story of revenge. And believe me, it is the Koreans and the Japanese directors who have inspired Quentin Tarantino to make movies such as Kill Bill (2003-2014). Korean director Ji-woon Kim has not done anything exceptional in this cinema but just portrays the abuse of power and the rise of a common guy to the extremities to avenge his wrong-treatment. I think a lot of Bollywood as well and Hollywood movies are made in this fashion. Plus the Korean style of presentation of conversation between a disciple and the master as the background do prevails in A Bittersweet Life, too. Nothing more was required from the actors so one shall not expect exceptional performances, either. The music keeps playing in the background. I think its just to mellow down the mood. Overall, average movie.

My rating: 6.5/10

Hostage (2005)

There is Bruce Willis. And then there are some smart dialogues, enough zing-zing, bomb-blasts and those cops and criminal drama. Hostage is no different story. Just some twists in the plot to make it a parallel-lane entertainer. Emilio Siri was a student of Cinema at Sorbonne University in Paris and he has done a good job in creating a thriller. If it does not give you something out of the box then it certainly does not disappoint you, either. Good pastime.

My rating: 6.75/10

Smokin' Aces (2006)

I revisited this movie. I had forgot that I saw this way back in 2006-07 itself. Unfortunately, realized that the reason why I do not remember about it when I saw earlier was because the movie is dud. The plot begins with hope that viewers might see some hot action. Yes, there is bang-bang. But poor plot, weak story line and no thrills make this flick something one can pass.

Surprisingly, loads of talented actors including the lead but the plot and the script murders their scope of performance. I only rate the background score to be smart. If you really have time to kill with action movies, better go for Steven Seagal. ;)
My Rating: 5.25/10

Running Scared (2006)

Sitting home, looking for some adrenaline push, I do more often search for Action/Thrillers. Had no idea about the release of Running Scared (2006) way back then. So, I saw it recently. I agree that the plot is made out of circle. And to some extent, I give plus point to that. It may look that the way the movie begins, it might loose the plot and go wayward but then it comes to ground zero before the climax. Concept wise, there are hundreds of movies on the same line. Chain of events following, creation of confusion, good guy, bad guy, suspicious guys and all those crime/drama plots are there in the movie. To add up the spices, there are child artists and primarily the movie revolves around them. Now, though the movie has a mix of mob and cops but those who are looking for such neck-to-neck dramatic dialogues then this is not the piece for you. For me, yes after watching so many of such movies, the development of plot in the first 15 minutes did give me the hint about the main leads character in the beginning itself. The movie happens during one night only so that may seem strange, for it to be so many things in less than 10 hours. However, this also limits the scope of cinematography. Nothing special was required, so nothing magnificent has been delivered. No background score, as well.

I think there was not much requirement in terms of great acting and thus, I will not make any particular comment about the acting. It is one of those pastime movies which you see, enjoy and forget. Target it for those days when you got nothing to do.

My Rating: 6.4/10